Michael Asimow ’61

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Michael Asimow is doubly honored in that his Distinguished Teaching Award is designated as the Award for Distinction in Graduate Teaching. As any law student knows, the first year of law school is sheer terror, and a professor who can alleviate any of this torment is not only greatly welcomed, but hard to find. Asimow is just such a professor. He teaches the large, basic courses that can often be a stumbling block for students, but he carries off this difficult task with the greatest of style, exhibiting a knack for making the incomprehensible comprehensible. His powerful energy and sense of humor can turn even a basic tax course into an exciting educational experience.

Asimow conveys not only enthusiasm but strong ethical standards, and students emerge from his classes with more powerful minds, having learned to think critically. Keenly interested in the progress of each student, Asimow reads every mid-term examination paper himself and confers individually with students when necessary.

Asimow has received consistently high student evaluations and was named “Professor of the Year” by the graduating classes of 1973, 1981 and 1987.

A model teacher in the finest sense, Asimow has earned a lofty place in the annals of law education. Many of his former students look back from successful careers and remember how much richer their law education was because they were lucky enough to study with Michael Asimow.